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Alexander Zverev
Photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images
Alexander Zverev fought his way into the round of 3 at the French Open. The Olympic champion defeated the twelfth seeded American Frances Tiafoe in 41:3 hours 6: 7, 6: 6 (3: 6), 1: 7, 6: 7 (5: <>) after a weak start.
The 26-year-old did not convert the first match point until 18 minutes after midnight, the game had started on the anniversary of his serious injury on the same court.
"It was the hardest year of my life, I love tennis more than anything else in life. I don't play the sport for the money, not for fame or anything else," said Zverev in an emotional victory speech on the court. When that was taken away from me, it was very difficult. I'm very happy to be back."
This puts Zverev in the top 16 for the sixth time in a row at the clay court classic in Paris and now meets Grigor Dimitrov. The world number 29. from Bulgaria easily defeated Daniel Altmaier 6: 4, 6: 3, 6: 1 and thus prevented a German round of <> duel. Altmaier was unable to build on his outstanding performance in the five-set thriller victory in more than five hours against Italian title contender Jannik Sinner.
Altmaier: "In the end, you're only human"
It was emotionally and physically difficult to process the previous match. "At the end of the day, you're only human and you can learn from it. Hopefully, if it becomes a reality week after week to play against these top boys, it will hopefully be natural," said Altmaier, assessing his tournament and the work of the past few weeks "very positively": "There are still a lot of construction sites, but we have already had nice moments."
Altmaier thus missed the repeat of the greatest success of his career, when he also reached the round of 2020 at the clay court classic in Paris in <>. At that time, too, he had first beaten a top ten player in Matteo Berrettini and was then eliminated in three sets.
By reaching the third round, Altmaier will at least improve significantly from 79th place in the world rankings.
ast/dpa